The state of the art for software program and data sales and distribution consists of retail, shareware, and freeware. All three methods are susceptible to abuses such as illegal copying and casual distribution. Such abuses result in significant loss of revenue to software authors companies that produce and sell software.
The retail sale of software programs is identical to other types of retail sales with software programs being sold in stores, through the mail, and more recently, on-line via the Internet. Frequently software and data sold over the Internet are made available to consumers on a trial basis with the trial version of the software program ceasing to function after an interval of time, e.g., thirty days. Retail sale of software is problematic because programs frequently are illegally copied and distributed by a purchaser of a legitimate copy of the software. The software's author receives no compensation for the illegal copies. Moreover, the free trial usage period by some software program retailers is abused by computer users who tamper with the system clock or who simply download a fresh trial version of the software after the trial period has expired.
Shareware distribution of software programs is based upon the honor system. Shareware software programs comprise windows that remind the user to register their purchase and pay the fee so that a code may be received by the user and entered in the shareware software program. After the code is entered, the shareware program stops reminding the use to register the software being used. Shareware programs are most commonly downloaded from the Internet. Share distribution of software is also not an efficient means for collecting revenues for the authors of the software programs. Most users of shareware simply choose to ignore the registration requests and use the software without paying the requested fee.
Freeware software programs are free to the user and do not solicit any form of payment. Freeware software is the most common type of software downloaded from the Internet. Many freeware software programs are distributed by organizations which also solicit donations to fund their activities. Freeware distribution of software programs collects little or no revenues or the authors of a software program.
It is also know that the state of the art for advertising on personal computers (PCs) currently consists of Internet advertising that is displayed using World Wide Web (or Internet) browser software. As users browse the Internet, the various sites they visit display advertisements of a random nature or advertisements that are related to the content of the Web pages being browsed. Although this method of advertisement is growing rapidly it is not ideal in several respects. Web page based advertisements are easy to ignore. They generally occupy a small area of the computer monitor's display and are inconsistent in appearance with the material that hosts them. Internet users quickly adjust and typically ignore advertisements. To solve this problem, Web based advertisements are becoming more striking in appearance and are making use of animation. However, the advertisement's animation requires additional time when loading a Web page into a user's browser and ultimately detracts from the material that hosts the advertisement.
Because of television, most people in this country are accustomed to the concept of viewing advertisements in exchange for having free access to programming. However, people who work rarely, if ever, view traditional media Advertisements (i.e., television ads) during business hours. Similarly, few people access the Internet for casual browsing during business hours, instead saving casual Internet use until evening.
Because evening users are accessing the Internet, they are not watching television and are not watching or hearing traditional advertisements.
Consequently, because of the increase in the number of people who access the Internet in the evening, fewer people are being exposed to main stream advertisements during the time period when traditionally most people viewed advertising on television. For these reasons, it is desirable for the advertisement industry that an effective method of advertising on the Internet should be developed. This advancement would enable the industry to expose users to advertisements both during the work day and especially during the evening hours.
An advancement of the art is needed for distributing software programs that insures equitable payment to the authors and distributors of said programs. Further, advertisements that are difficult to ignore and are viewed whenever the software program is used should be used to generate the payment for these software programs. Without these advertisements, advertisers will continue to face a decreasing number of viewers. As mentioned above, because of radio, television and the print media, consumers are already used to viewing or hearing advertisements as a means to access an otherwise free service.
An additional advancement is needed which allows advertisers to monitor the frequency of use of advertisement sponsored software. In this manner, advertisers and potential advertisers can appropriately determine the value of the advertising rights of any given software program. Moreover to capture the interest of software users, such advertisements should be frequently updated and should allow the consumer to receive additional product information or even purchase the advertised product.